Taking another sip from his flask Greg really wished he could feel the alcohol to help him cope with what was happening to him. But seriously, what was happening to him? Some cosmic joke? He thought “no” at the screen and thankfully it disappeared.

  What did it mean by “level up” or “distribute stats”? Somehow Greg had some knowledge of what it all meant but he didn’t know where this knowledge came from. What ever it was he didn’t trust it at all. Nothing ever good came from free stuff and this sounded like some obscure promotion.

  He remembered once how one day he suddenly got promoted while he was working at the steel mill. No longer did he have to toil as a lines worker but was suddenly the manager. He certainly wasn’t qualified but wasn’t going to say no to easier work and higher pay. Several months later the company was audited, and he was fired for “mismanagement”. Clearly, he was used as a scapegoat but who would care to believe him? Especially since Greg couldn’t get himself to care.

  He wished he could read through the notifications again as it was so overwhelming the first time and he didn’t have a chance to really allow it to sink in.

  Apparently wanting to see them again was enough to cause them to reappear. It was eerie how smooth everything related to the screen seemed to be. Every thought or desire he had was immediately fulfilled. He wanted the size or style different and boom, the text would change to exactly what he wanted, even if he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted himself. It seemed to understand his intentions better than himself.

  Whoever or whatever this “overwhelmingly powerful” figure is, clearly installed some kind of “system” into his brain that was beyond anything he has ever heard of.

  But why would someone bother to experiment on some old fogey? Well maybe that’s exactly why they did it. Who would care about some old fogey on some backwater planet in the first place? Or who would notice if he suddenly fell off the face the planet, quite literally it seems.

  He wondered what this “Constitution” and “vitality” meant and if it were one of the states that leveling would affect. Once again, the system responded to his thoughts. This time taking him to a different screen that answered a lot of questions he didn’t even know to ask.

  Greg guessed his titles had changed his stats and it would explain why he felt so…healthy, although his health percentage didn’t agree with him. Instinctually he understood that his health was tied to his Vitality and his Constitution was tied to his Stamina. The very thought of titles though made the system respond once more. Confirming his earlier thoughts about his stats and presenting far more new questions.

  Reading through everything was again quite overwhelming. Greg couldn’t understand why he felt so good even though he was currently at 16% health. He instinctually knew that it had something to do with his ridiculous Constitution. Maybe he should level up and see what happens?

  He decided to first wait a little to see if his health, stamina, and mana would go up themselves. He was quite sure they would go up themselves given enough time, but the 5000% penalty was sure to slow things down.

  Greg believed himself to have a good understanding on what the system was telling him, he supposed it was due to Late Initiator title giving him that “Instinct” it talked about. But even with that as proof Greg had a hard time believing that he now lived in some bizarre realty where he can change his physical abilities through levels and titles.

  He supposed he could try one of his active abilities deciding first to see if the system had anything to say about [Identify].

  Deciding to try it out he stood up and walked to one of the runes cooling the air around it and thought [Identify] and immediately several things had happened. At first, he felt a little trickle of what he presumed was mana start to move and leave through his body. Unfortunately, it caused a blinding pain to temporarily reel through his body.

  Then a new notification came up.

  Mentally cursing at the short burst of pain he brought up more information on his changed skill with a mental command.

  The information he gained was simply [Rune] deciding to try once more Greg gritted his teeth and used his newfound skill. The flash of pain was there though not nearly as intense. He figured it had something to do with his current condition of [Ravaged by Arcane] but wasn’t completely sold on the idea. The information he garnered was the same [Rune] but this time he got some sense of cooling and stabilization. Though this information wasn’t written out it seemed similar to the instincts he felt regarding the system that Unwilling Realm Sojourner title granted him.

  Feeling inspired by the success he took off his leather Jacket and used it again. The results this time were far more impressive.

  The instinctual information he gained was that this coat was pretty much tied to his existence. Even if it were fully shredded and burnt, he could channel mana to reform the item at will. He also couldn’t part with the object. He gained much more instinctual information this time around as well. Greg understood this was most likely because this item was Soul-Bound to him, so the ability had much more feedback. For example, he had an understanding that if he were to separate a certain distance from the coat it would simply reappear on him.

  Testing the knowledge proved simple enough. Throwing the coat to the corner of the cellar felt profoundly wrong but sure enough the coat just reappeared slung over his shoulder. Greg put the coat back on feeling much better. He knew it was wasn’t the bonus stats as he didn’t lose them, rather it felt more like a part of his being was temporarily missing. Like he temporarily lost a limb.

  But what if he needed to take if off to bathe? At the thought the coat seemed to suddenly disappear. Along with his flask and cigarette case. He still retained his bonus stats, but the items seemed to vanish. With a mental command he willed the coat back on and just like that, everything was back.

  Testing around he couldn’t detect any mana usage willing it off and on again. He also didn’t experience the same feeling of wrongness when he threw the coat away, but a sense of slight discomfort was still present with the coat absent.

  Inspired by his new skill Greg took off the coat to inspect the runes. Arcane Insight didn’t tell him anything beyond the usual [Rune] but the subtle information he gained answered his questions. The smallest rune gave him a similar sense of stability that the runes in the cellar did but with a strong sense of “correcting a wrongness” that he tied to the Maintenance affect. The second rune gave him a strong sense of power that he tied to the stat gain. Both of these runes where tied to the giant center rune, which gave him a strong sense of “self” it almost gave him a feeling of looking at his own soul. He knew this was the Soul-Bound effect and what allowed him to vanish the item and why he couldn’t ever truly part with the item.

  Realizing that both his flask and cigarette case also disappeared he excitedly decided to test a theory. Stuffing some lose gravel in his coat pocket he willed it to disappear only to find that the rocks simply fell onto the floor at the action. Disappointed but curious as why the rules only applied to his other items, he willed them back and used [Arcane Insight] on both the flask and the cigarette case. Reading through notifications a grin appeared on his face growing larger and larger as the implications set in. He felt such joy only two times in his life. Once when the headmaster expressed that he wished he could adopt Greg when he was younger but couldn’t afford the cost. The second, when he was gifted a vintage scotch.

  However as more and more implications set in of his new reality the more joy he felt. He almost shed tears of joy from the elation he was feeling. Feeling giddy he pulled out a cigarette willed it to be lit. A notification he knew would appear was dismissed with a stray thought as he inhaled deeply. The usual head-high he felt was missing but he knew this would eventually change. Nothing could deter this moment of joy for him. The cigarette smoked much longer than a typical one would, and the remains disappeared when he flicked the butt away from him. He knew it would, after all it was made from his mana and how could his mana live apart from him?

  Taking out a second cigarette Greg brought up the descriptions to read through them again taking a healthy swig from his flask as well. Whoever this mysterious Rune-Smith was, Greg vowed he would repay him for the gifts. All the other titles and abilities held little meaning to Greg. This latest development however wiped away any and all concerns about being abducted and displaced to an alien realm.

  Greg kept a smile on his face reading through the descriptions with increasing joy. Now he had a reason to level. Consequences be damned, he will find out for sure if proof, strength, and flavor meant exactly what it implied.

  tobacco-box. - Again it will make sense why in the next chapter :)